the commendation in our text was unreservedly bestowed.
The first thing then to be noticed is, Their acknow- ledgment that they could not stand before the Divine Majesty.
Many things had now occurred to produce an extraordinary degree of terror upon their minds. There was a blackness and darkness in the sky, such as they never before beheld. This darkness was rendered more visible by the whole adjacent moun- tain blazing with fire, and by vivid lightnings flashing all around in quick succession. The roaring peals of thunder added an awful solemnity to the scene. The trumpet sounding with a long and increasingly tremendous blast, accompanied as it was by the mountain shaking to its centre, appalled the trem- bling multitude : and Jehovah's voice, uttering with inconceivable majesty his authoritative commands, caused even Moses himself to say, " I exceedingly fear and quake V In consequence of this terrific scene, we are told that the people " removed and stood afar offc," lest the fire should consume them, or the voice of God strike them dead upon the spotd. Now though this was in them a mere slavish fear, and the request founded upon it had respect only to their temporal safety, yet the sentiment itself was good, and worthy of universal adoption. God being hidden from our senses, so that we neither see nor hear him, we are ready to think lightly of him, and even to rush into his more immediate presence without any holy awe upon our minds : but when he speaks to us in thunder or by an earthquake, the most hardened rebel is made to feel that " with God is terrible majesty," and that " he is to be had in re- verence by all that are round about him." This is a lesson which God has abundantly taught us by his dealings with the Jews. Among the men of Beth- shemesh, a great multitude were slain for their irre- verent curiosity in looking into the ark- as Uzzah also
h Compare Exod. xix. 1G — 19. with Heb. xii. 18 — 21. 0 Exod. xx. IS, 19. 'i Exod. xx. 21.